The Surge is out now for PS4 and Xbox One, introducing players to its brutal sci-fi universe and gameplay. One of the key gameplay features in The Surge is your ability to build new gear and evolve your exosuit, but doing so will require a very specific targeting and farming skill, so you can focus all of your energy on certain enemy body parts during combat.

Upgrading your exosuit — more specifically called the Exo-Rig — requires you collect materials and resources. In combination with collecting Schematics, this forms one of if not the most important element of The Surge‘s customisation elements.

Before you look at farming and upgrading, let’s talk about Schematics, because understanding and getting them will allow you to better approach combat with enemies.

When you first start The Surge, you’ll notice that our hero’s Exo-Rig has a number of missing pieces. Ideally, you want to fill the Exo-Rig and get it to a level where later in the game, you’re powerful enough to battle the more complex and challenging enemies.

Getting Schematics is mostly a reflection of your combat skills. Targeting very specific body parts on certain enemies, and perfecting the game’s combat mechanics, will go a long way to helping you enhance your Schematics portfolio.

The best way to focus on this element of the experience is by targeting very specific body parts of an enemy. If, for example, you’re after head armor, then you’ll need to target that specific area of the body in order to pick up the required Schematics.

On PC, the targeting and selecting method is much easier, as you can simply use the mouse wheel to cycle through the different body parts. On console it’s a bit tougher, as you have to wrestle the moving enemy with the analog stick in order to target the specific area.

Once you’ve targeted that area — in this case, the head — unleash a spectacular array of combat moves. A good combination of vertical and horizontal strikes will get the job done.

Once the “Finisher” icon appear, execute, and chop the limb off. Doing so will generally drop a Schematic, although not all of the time. If the game doesn’t reward you, simply target another enemy in the same way until you land the ideal Schematic. It’s not a 100 percent drop rate, so there’s quite a bit of challenge and patience involved.

After acquiring the Schematic, you can return to a Gear Station in the Ops Center and build the armor. Then it’s just a matter of equipping the item from your inventory, and putting it into the correct slot for your Exo-Rig.

You definitely don’t need to equip every single piece of material you acquire from a beaten enemy, so as you move through areas, always try to target different body parts and specific armor. The dropped materials aren’t useful in the immediate form, but visiting the Gear Station will automatically break them down into the necessary body part and armor for the Exo-Rig.

Gaetano Prestia Editor in Chief

Gaetano loves Doritos and always orders Mountain Dew with his KFC. He's not sorry. He also likes Call Of Duty, but would much rather play Civ. He hates losing at FIFA, and his pet hate is people who recline their seat on short-haul flights.